People climb the Berlin Wall at the Brandenburg Gate after the opening of the East German border November 9, 1989. REUTERS/Herbert Knosowski
All in all, you were all just bricks in
the wall, Pink Floyd famously sang. Throughout
history, proud leaders have been busy at making people build barriers, fences,
and borders. From the Great Wall of China to the proposed barriers on the
US-Mexico border, walls throughout history have been as much about protecting
and separating societies and individuals as potent symbols of political ambition
and military might.
In June 1963 when US President John F.
Kennedy famously declared himself to be ein berliner, the freshly built Berlin
Wall loomed already large and menacing. The Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev referred
to West Berlin, this lonely outpost of freedom and self-government, as a “bone
in his throat” to be disposed of. The Third World War seemed poised to break
out.
Throughout decades of communism the Berlin
Wall was just one of the many egregious, vivid examples of how freedom was
restricted in the Soviet bloc. Thousands of miles of guarded borders made
Central Europe feel imprisoned. On the outskirts of Bratislava in Devin, 400 people
lost their lives—daring the barbed wire and dogs—trying to swim across the Morava
river to get to the Austrian shore. (A little plaque was dedicated to the
victims in 2008 by Queen Elizabeth II of the UK).
When walls are torn down, their rubble
always marks a new beginning. The autumn of nations came so fast and unexpected.
The USSR was dying, while the West exuded strength. Mikhail Gorbachev, unlike Leonid
Brezhnev in Czechoslovakia before him, chose not to invade the Eastern bloc
countries who were breaking free. People’s democracies died in peace. German
reunification, for half a century unthinkable, became reality. Who could have
predicted thirty years ago that the memories and vestiges of the Berlin Wall would
be more about art installations, tour guides, and exhibitions rather than a
sinister ideology which kept the half of the Old Continent in its tight grip for
fifty years? Today the separate city of West Berlin is a distant memory. Quaint
small differences like the superiority of kebab sold at food stands in the
former west or the markedly different cobble stones in the pavement in the east
are all that remains.
Central Europeans chose to join NATO and the
European Union and firmly positioned themselves in the West. What started in
November 1989 was symbolically wrapped up in December 2007 when the Schengen
zone was enlarged into the post-communist EU member countries, allowing free
movement of people across the previously militarized borders. There are now no
border checks from Lisbon to Tallin—a powerful symbol of European unity. Where
once there was barbed wire, there are motorways, cycling paths, and hiking
trails, with only the occasional roaming wild animal to worry about.
Not all of Europe is whole and free. Eastern
Europe is still walled off from the rest of the Continent by fences and customs
checks. Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia, and others are still waiting for their
reunification with Europe. Borders on the eastern flanks of the EU still
resemble the Cold War, splitting territories which were once one cultural,
social, or political organism. From Przemyśl in Poland to Lviv in Ukraine is
just sixty miles, but travel can last over four hours, given the long lines at
the border.
If there is one thing to learn from history
it is that no accomplishment is complete or forever. There is always some wall,
in literal or figurative sense, being built or rebuilt somewhere. Think of the
so-called Gypsy walls built by local authorities in Czechia, Romania, or
Slovakia to segregate the Roma minority from the rest of the population. Even more
seriously, some governments have tried to entrench themselves in power by
building political barriers between themselves and their citizenry,
compromising freedom of speech or the independence of the judiciary.
Central Europe is still markedly poorer and
less resilient in terms of economic shocks than its western neighbors. There is
a risk of the middle-income trap for the region’s economies. Emigration has
sapped the region’s growth potential. The agglomeration effect, where well-paid
skilled workers tend to cluster in urban areas, has led to the marginalization
of rural and small-town communities, breeding frustration and anger—across the
whole region from the former East Germany to Poland or Lithuania. The imitation
growth model, where Central European countries transformed their economies to
match Western precepts, has reached its limits. The West (the United States especially)
is less of a role model, with democracy and capitalism in obvious need of an overhaul.
There are still significant mental barriers
between East and West in Europe. Western liberal values are contested in more
conservative parts of societies. Anti-establishment backlash coupled with
vulnerability to populism seems to be stronger in the former Soviet bloc. There
are always those who undertake cynical wall-building, manipulate crowds, and exploit
anxieties, fears, or stereotypes such as labelling Muslims as terrorists or accusing
immigrants of stealing jobs, in order to solidify their grip on power. These
are hardly problems unique to Central Europe, but are more of a challenge than
in the traditional West.
In July 1990, Roger Waters from Pink Floyd staged a concert to commemorate the fall of the Berlin Wall which happened eight months earlier. It was a moment of celebration for the 350,000 people gathered there and millions in front of their television sets. It took part in a former “no man’s land” between Potsdamer Platz and Brandenburg Gate. The stage design featured a gigantic wall, which was then knocked down at the end of the show. The message today is as clear as it was thirty years later: barriers will never cease to be erected because of fear, oppression, and dangerous ideologies. It’s the role of every responsible individual and community to never stop tearing down these walls which divide people. As Pink Floyd put it in their closing track of probably the most geopolitically significant rock album in history:
All alone, or in twos
The ones who really love you
Walk up and down, outside the wall
Some hand in hand
And some gathered together in bands
The bleeding hearts and the artists make their stand
And when they’ve given you their all
Some stagger and fall, after all it’s not easy
Banging your heart against some mad bugger’s wall.
Jakub Wiśniewski is vice president of GLOBSEC & director of the GLOBSEC Policy Institute. He previously served as Polish ambassador to the OECD (2014-2016) and head of foreign policy planning at the Polish Foreign Ministry (2010-2014).
Further reading
Tue, Nov 5, 2019
As the 30th anniversary of the Berlin Wall’s fall approaches, does the US have a consistent strategy and a unified alliance needed to address today’s challenges?
Inflection Points
by
Frederick Kempe
Mon, Oct 21, 2019
To keep the “good times” in Poland, and the good times in US-Polish relations which helped lead the good times generally, Americans and Poles alike need to make efforts and show wisdom.
New Atlanticist
by
Daniel Fried
Wed, Jul 17, 2019
As the United States learned the hard way, Central Europe matters because Europe matters
New Atlanticist
by
Daniel Fried
If there is one thing to learn from history it is that no accomplishment is complete or forever. There is always some wall, in literal or figurative sense, being built or rebuilt somewhere.
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